DESCRIPTION: The proposed project seeks to examine the multiple paths taken by Black adolescents from low to moderate income families in the transition to adulthood. The sample consists of youths (ages 17 to 24) in three African descended groups: 1) native-born African Americans, 2) Belizean Creoles, and 3) Belizean Garifuna. Building on studies already conducted by the investigators, this longitudinal study has four specific aims: 1) to document the transition to adulthood among these three African descended, yet ethnically different, groups; 2) to examine the influence of risk and protective factors in the transition to adulthood; 3) to examine family, peer, and school factors that serve as mediators in the transition to adulthood; and 4) to examine the effects of these transitions on the youths themselves.